Attorney General Raoul Asks Court To Enforce Order Blocking Trump Administration’s Demands For Personal Data Of SNAP Recipients

Coalition challenges Trump administration’s push for sensitive SNAP recipient info.

Submitted by Office of the Illinois Attorney General

Jan 14, 2026 1:45 PM

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CHICAGO – Attorney General Kwame Raoul asked the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to enforce its preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration’s demand that states turn over personal and sensitive information about millions of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients.

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Despite the court issuing a preliminary injunction in October 2025 to block the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) access to the data of millions of SNAP recipients, in November the Trump administration again threatened to cut off administrative funding to states that do not turn over this data. In the motion to enforce, Raoul and a coalition of 20 attorneys general argue this renewed demand violates the court’s existing order and is still contrary to law.

“The Trump administration, yet again, thinks it is above the law, as it ignores the court’s preliminary injunction to temporarily block the USDA from accessing sensitive information of SNAP recipients,” Raoul said. “States should not have to choose between following the law by protecting SNAP recipients’ information or complying with the USDA’s unlawful demand and potentially losing millions of critical SNAP administration dollars. No one should be forced to grant the government unlimited license to their personal information for access to the healthy food everyone deserves.”

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In July 2025, Raoul and the coalition filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration alleging the USDA’s demand violates multiple federal laws and the U.S. Constitution by accessing the personal and sensitive information of SNAP recipients. Since then, the USDA has refused to negotiate adequate and legally required safeguards for states’ SNAP data, leaving the possibility this information could be shared with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for immigration enforcement or other surveillance purposes.

States collect data from SNAP applicants and recipients to ensure that those households meet federal eligibility criteria and to distribute benefits. Both federal and state laws prohibit states from disclosing this personally identifying SNAP data, except under narrow circumstances. The USDA, which oversees states’ SNAP programs, demanded that states submit personally identifying information for all SNAP applicants and recipients dating back to January 2020. In their lawsuit, Attorney General Raoul and the coalition argue that this highly sensitive data, which includes names, dates of birth, home addresses, Social Security numbers, immigration statuses and more, would likely be shared across federal agencies and used for immigration enforcement, in violation of the law.

SNAP is a federally funded, state-administered program that provides billions of dollars in food assistance to tens of millions of low-income families nationwide, including nearly 2 million Illinoisans. SNAP applicants provide their private information with the understanding, backed by longstanding state and federal laws, that it will not be used for unrelated purposes. Of those Illinois households receiving benefits, 33% contain children, 30% contain adults over 60 years of age, and 27% contain a person with a disability.

Joining Attorney General Raoul in filing the lawsuit are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington and Wisconsin, as well as the state of Kentucky.

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